Hot Water Plumbing Problems

Dan-

I you trying to diagnose this from afar? Have you visited the unit to see the problem first hand?

Did she used to get hot water & now it no longer works?

Is she turning on the cold? Is it a single handle faucet & the supply line are reversed?

Seems pretty hard to get flow through the faucet via the "hot" valve & never get hot water.

cheers Bob

Is it a 2 pipe HW system with return for a circulator pump. I have one and cold will only come out if pipes are corodded shut and water is comming through the return. If you have 2 pipe HW do you have a pump.

de quoted text -

what are the water lines made of? any chance they are galvanized?

the landlord and tenant live in the same building......

Are all valves in basement open, it could be back feeding through the return, I had that happen after doing plumbing on 2 pipe HW we forgot to open all basement supply valves. HW corrodes pipes shut 100x faster than cold water, the hotter the water the faster they corrode shut.

The only way that can happen is water from the cold side is entering the hot water pipe after the tank. Some moron must have screwed up the plumbing under the 1st and 2nd floor bathroom sinks by connecting the hot and cold together. Since cold has a little higher pressure than hot you get cold.

I think that "an old home (1902)" equals corrosion -- in the pipes and in the valves.

Maybe one of the pipes is so corroded that it is virtually completely clogged. Same for a valve.

Or, maybe there is a valve turned off somewhere that is hard to locate.

Seems like you should be able to turn on the hot water at one or two sources near the problem sinks (such as a nearby tub) and then trace where the pipes are hot by feeling them. My guess is that you'll find a point where a hot water pipe branches off and should be hot but isn't. The corrosion clog or corroded valve is probably somewhere nearby.

How long have you had the house? Have you had a chance to inspect the little nooks and crannies? I ask because, I liv in an old house, and after being there a while, we realized it had 2 separate hot water heaters. A big gas one for the main part of the house and a small electric one the runs a couple of bathrooms. I might not have noticed so soon, (it was well hidden) but the gas was off one morning, and there was still ample hot water in that part of the house.

Turn OFF the hot water at the water heater.

Turn ON the hot water tap at the problem sink.

What happens?